Before U.S. Navy veteran Ben Gibson went to work for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in August 2024, he had two competing job offers. One was a position with the VA; the other, he told Business Insider’s Tess Martinelli, was “a remote six-figure job in private equity.”
The VA job required moving from Idaho to Washington, DC; the equity job would have allowed him to stay in Idaho and work online. Gibson choose the VA — only to be laid off thanks to the Trump Administration and the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Gibson describes his situation in an article published by Business Insider on March 15.
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“I had some difficult conversations with my family, and I ultimately decided to take the federal job,” Gibson explains. “Its mission felt closer to my heart, and I really wanted to settle into a lifelong career with guaranteed retirement. On February 13, (2025), after I had just gotten home from the office, I received an e-mail saying I had been terminated, highlighting my probationary status. I was shocked. It felt completely surreal, and it was an awful experience.”
Gibson’s background made him perfect for the VA. He served in the U.S. Navy for 8 years, then worked in the private sector as a technical communicator until 2023. When Gibson chose the VA in 2024 over the six-figure private equity job he turned down, the VA was glad to have him. And Gibson’s co-workers, he told Business Insider, were shocked when he was laid off the following year.
“When the first e-mails about the deferred resignation package came out,” Gibson explains, “part of me didn’t feel like they were real. I convinced myself the VA would likely be safe from terminations, and if we were affected, I figured there’d be some sort of protective mechanism blocking that action. I feel a bit foolish like I should’ve known….. I texted the senior executive I worked directly under and told her I got fired. She thought I was joking.”
Gibson adds, “It wasn’t only unbelievable to me but also to most of our senior leaders, who should’ve been involved in the decision-making process or at least aware of the changes being made.”
This wasn’t the first time Gibson experienced a layoff — he lost a technical communicator job in 2023, but says his experience with the federal government was much worse.
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“When I got laid off from my private-sector job,” Gibson notes, “they at least gave me severance pay, had HR present to answer questions, and helped me navigate my next steps. I’d take that over what happened with the government.”
Gibson adds, “My experience is tough, but I’m not alone. Thousands of others have been fired, and the people remaining are left to pick up the pieces. I think these terminations will eventually slow down the VA’s ability to execute services and veterans will suffer. I’ll never be happier to be wrong if I am.”
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Read the full Business Insider article at this link (subscription required).
